Motoring.co.uk, the online portal which aims to help consumers find the right new or used car, believes manufacturers and dealers need to be more engaging with their social media content if they want to build trust and loyalty.

Chris Green, sales director of Motoring.co.uk, said: “The problem is that as long as there is a Facebook page with lots of likes and a Twitter feed, most dealers and manufacturers are happy.

“However, making social work to your advantage will be difficult if you bang out dross on an automatic Twitter feed, or send repetitive information that is not engaging, as consumers will simply switch off.

“So the big question to ask of your social media strategy and the content you deliver is ‘will it engage, build trust and create loyalty, and more importantly a long term relationship’? If not, ’what can I do about it’?”

Green believes dealers should be building a “digital local community” of customers from information captured in the showroom and offering engaging editorial content , no different to a consumer publication.

In contrast, manufacturers should be building a national community.

Green said: “Building an automotive community is something that dealers and manufacturers should be looking at if they want to deepen their engagement with customers and prospects, and boost aftersales and customer loyalty.

“Over the last three years, we have built a community of over one 1 million third party opted-in motorists who own cars up to 10 years old.

“We have a weekly theme of rich rewarding automotive content for our users and they know exactly what they are getting from us, which is not always offers, as they can bore consumers. For example, topical news content supporting the hard hit motorist, which encourages them to comment, share and engage with us; games, competitions and quizzes which reward the consumer and are fun and entertaining; and specific timed and relevant retail and service offers.

“We are able to do this because we know how old their vehicle is; we know if they are thinking of changing it and to what and when; and we know when their servicing and MoT is due. Consumers give us this highly valuable information because we reward them with rich engaging content and they trust us.”